Rituals of Plate

A food experience design studio focusing on slow food, connection to nature and creative aliveness.

I believe slowing down the naturally sensory daily activities like cooking and eating can greatly inspire a more embodied and joyful life here on earth. Rituals of Plate is a space to explore slowing down, deepening our connection with edible nature, and in turn, discovering our own true nature. Rituals of Plate finds its inspiration in longstanding food traditions performed by our ancestors in the past (fadó), while designing new ways to interact with food in a more meaningful, mindful, creative and embodied way.

I have been very drawn to the idea of using eating as an anchor to the present moment. I have warm memories of my childhood summers spent on the farm that my mother grew up on in county Laois. I remember feeling at peace in a sunny glasshouse de-shelling nuts in silence, enlivened while picking and munching on my fresh harvest of raspberries and scallions, and inspired while watching granny bake milky soda bread and aunty Biddy make jam from her blackcurrants. I feel connected to nature, my family and myself through food. And although I don’t live on a farm, I feel farming in my blood. 

A more recent, but very influential, experience has been time spent in Plum Village, a Zen Buddhist meditation centre in the Dordogne region of France founded by Zen master Thich Nhat Hahn. Week long retreats there have opened my mind to the fact that although I am a really experienced eater (having eaten all my life!), I haven’t been really experiencing eating as much as I could be. While growing some of my own produce and cooking from scratch have helped me appreciate food much more fully, I am becoming aware of how I have been stumbling at the last step: after months of growing a vegetable, and hours of cooking, I could have a beautiful meal mindlessly gobbled up in minutes. My time at Plum Village stirred me to start asking myself some questions. How come I eat at such a frantic pace? Am I actually tasting this food that took so long to get to my plate? As the days went on at Plum Village, I started to see the significance in slowing down eating. Slowness shows you your habits. And it feels true that you are not only what you eat, but also how you eat. As Paul Pitchford says: "The way you eat is an expression of who you are." 

With a combined background in product/user-experience/spatial and graphic design, hundreds of hours of hospitality work in inspiring cafes while living in Melbourne, a certificate in organic horticulture and a passion for growing, cooking, art and performance, I am interested in designing engaging eating experiences that encourage slowing down and coming into our senses - so that we can savour food (and life!) more fully. This, to me, encompasses the full scope of the Slow Food Movement - honouring sustainable regional produce right the way up to the end; taking the time to chew slowly, taste fully and truly nourish our bodies and communities. 

At Rituals of Plate, a conceptual and visceral approach is adopted to projects (bringing together mind + body). Projects will vary like the seasons, both in subject and structure, and include personal projects, community collaborations and consultancy work. The intention for all projects is to place as much emphasis on the process as the output: 

"Peace is every step" - Thich Nhat Hahn.